Brett Reichman

My highly detailed, labor-intensive approach to realism addresses the complexities of identity politics. Through the post-modern staging of the figure in performative situations with objects, I question societal norms by painting images of exaggeration and artifice. This inquiry into the politics of gay culture critiques political correctness and cultural assimilation through images that convey an amplified visibility and difference. My approach to realism is never simply reproductive. I separate the concept of realism from naturalism within a discourse that views popular culture as anxious, obsessed with artificiality and unnatural beauty. www.sfai.edu/online-gallery/Reichman